


Song Like a Storm

by nerdzeword



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Beyonce - Freeform, F/M, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, band au, marlene is the best wingman, so much fucking pining, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-06-15 20:36:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15421098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword
Summary: Sirius may have made a mistake in starting a feud with his long term crush, but there was no way he was going to back out now.Remus can't even figure out how he ended up in a feud with Sirius Black in the first place.





	Song Like a Storm

**Author's Note:**

> This is my submission to this year's Drizzle fest! I had so much fun writing this! Big thanks to the fest mods. You guys are the real MVP's
> 
> Much thanks to the wonderful rosyredlipstick, who offered to be my beta. As well as my squad, who had to hear every single one of my headcanons, and dealt with me filling the group chat with theories.
> 
> Edit: now that this is finally published, I have some art up on my blog (nerdzewordart.tumblr.com/tagged/song like a storm)

 

  Alternate title: In Defense of the Queen

 

It was all Sirius’ fault. Everyone said so. Even James, and he always took Sirius’ side in debates. Always. Despite the entire band disagreeing though, Sirius would forever maintain that it was Remus’ fault. No matter who was responsible for what became known as ‘the social media feud of the decade,’ no one could disagree that it all started in early May, at the beginning of their summer festival tour. 

“James? Where is my box of hairpins?” Lily demanded, moving Harry from one hip to the other. Most people would say that they were insane for trying to take a 10 month old on tour, but they had also said the same thing when Lily was pregnant with Harry, and that hadn’t stopped them then either. Sirius didn’t think there was a person alive who would dare argue with Lily when she had made her mind up about something. She once ate an entire pizza just because James told her there was no way she could do it, beating out the Marauders record as she did so. (Nine minutes and thirty two seconds, to Peter’s Twelve minutes and eight seconds, set in their Junior year of high school.)

And it wasn’t like James was a pushover either. Sirius had watched him win no less than three arguments with teachers over his grades in high school- without using tears. The man knew how to hold his ground.

“I don’t know Lils, did you check underneath the sink?” James yelled from the only bedroom on the tour bus. The room currently belonged to the Potters. Sirius had complained about that bit of injustice when they had first started touring three years before, long before James and Lily were married or had a kid. But Lily’s only response had been to tell him that she would give up the room when Sirius got a serious significant other. Had Sirius been any more self aware, he would have seen the trap for what it was. However, in the three years since then the room had never changed ownership once. 

Sirius held out his hands for his godson as his frustrated bandmate went in search of her hairpins. He actually knew exactly where the hairpins were, having used them to hold sheet music on a stand the day before, but Sirius knew better than to admit as such to Lily. Instead, as soon as she was out of sight, he pulled the box out from behind the couch cushion, and placed it on the counter. 

“Walking a thin line there, Pads.” Their third bandmate, Peter, commented from where he was laying on the other couch, plucking at his bass in a half-hearted manner. Peter was also chronically single, but for the opposite reason of Sirius. Peter simply had no interest in dating whatsoever. 

“Oi. Shut it, Wormy.” Sirius went back to playing peekaboo with Harry and pretending he didn’t care about Lily’s hairpin plight in the least. James walked out of the room and noticed the box on the counter. 

“Lils, they’re on the counter!” Lily reappeared from the back, already frowning.

“They were not on the counter!” she exclaimed, even as she took them out of James’ hand and disappeared back into the bathroom to finish whatever bizarre hairstyle she was trying that day. Sirius had often declared his opinion on what he called her ‘pinterest hair,’ unfortunately, no one else seemed to be confident, or stupid, enough to voice it if they ever shared the opinion. In fact, according to most fashion magazines, Lily was starting loads of new trends with her wild updo’s and complex braids. (Though his distaste for her hairstyles didn’t stop him from helping her with them when she needed it.)

“They really were.” James responded with an amused smirk, clearly not believing his wife. Peter rolled his eyes but didn’t bother to call Sirius out. A knock came on the door and both James and Sirius startled.

“Your first meet and greet is in 10.” Their manager called from outside. Alice Longbottom was the best friend and manager they could have ever hoped for. She and her husband Frank also doubled as security for the small band, which made tours both safer, and more fun, as Frank was just as much their friend as Alice was. Sirius had a feeling that the Longbottoms were probably going to be calling it quits on the tour life however, as their son Neville, who was born only a day before Harry, was starting to get restless being stuck in hotel rooms and tour vans all the time. 

“Thanks Alice!” James called out before turning back to look at Sirius and Peter. “Ready?” 

Sirius snorted loudly, “Please. I was born ready.”

Peter just shrugged. 

 

The thing about festivals is that because so many bands were playing at once, many of the other panels and meet and greets were scheduled together in order to save time as well. This was not a new experience for Sirius, who had met some really cool people on the festival tours that way. He had also met some not-so-great people too, but he preferred not to think about that part.  

Today, they were doing a meet and greet with the somewhat enigmatic Remus Lupin. Sirius didn’t know that much about him, just that he was always praised highly by the press for his talent and creativity. And that he sounded like an angel. Remus didn’t have much as far as a following. Sure, the press liked him, but as far as the rest of the world went, he was fairly unknown with the exception of a select few. Sirius was one of those few. 

He often wondered if you could fall in love with someone via the radio, and not a day went by when Sirius didn’t long to meet the person behind the beautiful voice he’d been playing on repeat for nearly a year. To say he was a bit of a fan would be a gross under-exaggeration. He had not told any of his bandmates of his obsession, of course, though he suspected that Lily knew he fancied someone, even if she wasn’t aware who. 

“Hi! I’m Remus.” The man said cheerfully, holding out a hand for James to shake. James grinned and moved the baby to his other hip before taking it. 

“Pleasure! I’m James. This is Lily, Peter and Sirius.” Lily gave a small wave at her name, before returning to digging through Harry’s diaper bag. Sirius and Peter only nodded to him in response. Internally, Sirius was having a meltdown, Remus was about 300% hotter in person than the photos of him online suggested. Which was completely unfair, as Sirius knew from experience that you always looked better on instagram than you do in real life. No one should be that beautiful a singer, and also pretty. That was just too much. It wasn’t fair. It really wasn’t. 

“You guys are the Marauders right? I’ve been following your stuff for a while.”

“That’s us!” James chirped as they all moved to sit behind the table. 

 

“What do you mean you ‘don’t care for Beyoncé?’” Sirius felt a bit betrayed. He thought his heart might break. Remus had been so perfect too.

“I mean, she’s a great artist and all, but her music’s not really my thing.” Remus shrugged as if what he had just said were not complete and utter blasphemy. Lily and Peter nodded as if this were a perfectly normal thing to say. Sirius could only stare at him in horror. 

 

“Listen to this, “Had fun hanging with @maraudersband today!”” Sirius read aloud in disgust. 

“That was nice of him.” Lily said absently as she re- braided her hair for their show that night. Sirius swivelled to face her. 

“Lils! It’s not nice! It’s a disgrace! He can’t just ‘at’ us as if we’re friends. Not after his behavior today!”

“Are you still hung up on the Beyoncé thing? Let it go Sirius. He was perfectly nice.”

“The Beyoncé thing!” Sirius near screeched. “Lily, he disrespected the  _ Queen _ . We cannot just let that slide!” She rolled her eyes.

“He’s right. You can’t just diss Beyoncé and get away with it.” James spoke up. Lily raised an eyebrow at her husband. He shrugged.

“It’s part of the rules Lils.”

“What rules?”

“The  _ rules.” _ the two said simultaneously, as if that cleared everything up for her. Lily just sighed and shook her head.

“Be that as it may, you should just let it go. It’s not worth starting a feud over.”

“Too late.” Sirius responded, clicking the submit button on the post. 

“What did you do?” Lily looked like she might start throwing things, or yelling. Or both. James read the retweet aloud from his phone.

“@remuslupinofficial I would agree, but unfortunately, I find that hating on Beyoncé really dampens the mood of potential friendships. Then like five of those uncomfortable sweating emojis that everyone forgets exist.”

“It took awhile to find one that summarized my feelings properly.” Sirius was pretty proud of himself. James looked impressed by his choice in emoji. Lily just sighed. 

“You had better hope he doesn’t get offended, Sirius Black.” Lily warned.

 

The last thing Remus had wanted was to start a feud with Sirius Black. In fact, it was the exact opposite of what he had wanted. In an ideal world, he would have convinced Sirius to fall madly in love with him and eloped to somewhere classy, like Paris, or Berlin. Or at least gotten a good shag. But instead he had ruined his perfect opportunity with a feud over  _ Beyoncé.  _

“I’ve ruined it all Marley!” Marlene McKinnon had gone to Juilliard with him before he had dropped out, but two semesters had been all it took to solidify their friendship into an unbreakable bond that defied time and space. 

“Are you still going on about that feud with Sirius Black?”

“Yes! He’s perfect, and I’ve ruined everything!”

“Remus, there are other guys out there. More emotionally stable ones too. Find one of them.”

“But Marley, Sirius is  _ perfect _ .” 

“Are you sure you’re not just saying that because he’s a drummer? You did say last week that, and I quote: ‘being a drummer instantly ups your hotness levels by like 80%’.” Remus grinned, he had in fact said that; he had been watching one of the Marauders music videos and drooling over Sirius at the time.

“And I stand by that statement, but still. Marley help.” she sighed

“Fine, I’ll help you, you sad gay mess. But you owe me Remus!” 

“Done.”

“This feud might actually be a good thing for you, Sirius is the exact type of person to thrive on unnecessary drama. And if you paid any attention to their videos rather than just staring at his arms, you would know that too.” 

“So you’re saying I should keep it going?”

“I’m saying that being a giant teddy bear is not going to help you here. OI! THAT IS NOT WHAT THE FLUTE IS FOR NATHANIEL! God, I hate freshmen. I have to go Re. You’ll be fine.” She hung up. 

 

Sirius was in love. There was no escaping it. He replayed the video for a third time. James groaned and put a pillow over his head, but Sirius ignored him in favor of staring at Remus’ perfect curls. Really, having someone flip him off in form of an acoustic cover of Beyoncé’s  _ Irreplaceable _ should not have been as hot as it was, but what could he say? Sirius had a  _ thing  _ for being told off. 

“Lily. Do you know if Marlene still conducts that Jazz band?”

“What are you planning?” She said suspiciously, not looking up from the magazine she was reading. 

“I need to retaliate. This injustice cannot go unchallenged.” He declared, climbing out of his bunk.

“Sirius! This has gone far enough! What would you need a jazz band for anyway?” Sirius ignored her question and started to pace, internally planning his retaliation with great detail. It had to be at least as impressive as Beyoncé. Remus had set a near impossible standard for him to match.

“James. Help me out here.” Lily finally looked over at her husband. James only shrugged.

“It’s not like he’s hurting anything. If anything, it’s just getting us more publicity.”

“Peter?”

“We’re trending on twitter.” Peter commented, still scrolling through his phone. 

“Fine. But if this blows up in your face later, I reserve the right to mock you.”

“Lilybug. I would expect nothing less.” Sirius said solemnly.

“Good. And there’s no way you’re going to be able to get a jazz band on such short notice. I would suggest something that’s a bit more subtle.” Sirius stared at her before his face broke into a grin. 

 

Remus rarely used his instagram, something that irritated his manager to no end.  _ “You’re not going to get a bigger fanbase without a social media presence, Remus!” _ He couldn’t help it, he had better things to do than post videos and pictures of himself on the internet. Besides, it wasn’t like he had anyone to take pictures for him. Which was probably why his manager didn’t freak out over him continuing his “feud” with Sirius via Instagram. He thought that the Beyoncé cover was particularly inspired. But it seemed to have backfired as Sirius hadn’t posted a response in the three days since, and Remus was going to be playing with them at another festival the next day. 

“I’ve ruined it Marley. I’ve ruined everything.” he said when Marlene picked up the phone. He supposed he should probably glad that Marlene had a caller ID, or that could have been pretty awkward. 

“I feel like Sirius not responding is probably a good thing Remus.”

“It’s not. What if he didn’t see it? What if he saw it and hated it and now wants nothing to do with me? What if-”

“What if you just ask him when you see him tomorrow?” Remus let out a breath. 

“I could- I mean, yeah, I’ll do that.”

“Awesome. Can I go back to work now?”

 

Sirius had been planning this all week. He paced nervously around the tour bus, stopping every so often to check that Harry was still asleep. He was babysitting and James and Lily would kill him if he shirked his duties to pine. Not that he ever would, Harry was his absolute favorite person ever, topping both James  _ and  _ Remus. Speaking of. He went back to pacing. Sirius even knew exactly what he was going to say to the other man. Well, sort of. Was he going to say ‘hello’ or ‘sup?’ he couldn’t remember. 

The door opened and Sirius spun around to find Alice staring at him, no doubt there to watch Harry. 

“You ready Sirius?”

“Yes.”

“For the concert, not just your rivalry.”

“ _ Yes.  _ You’re not my mom Alice.”

“If I was you’d be smarter.” she clapped back, shoving him out the door. “Now get!” Sirius was feeling particularly petty that day so he stuck his tongue out at her in response. He turned to head towards backstage, then froze at the sight of Remus standing there, looking beautiful as ever. He had his arms exposed today, showing off his half sleeve of the phases of the moon. Lord have mercy, he was such a fucking nerd. How could Sirius compete? It took him a moment to recover brain function, then he realized what Remus had to have just seen him do. 

“Um.”

“Do you always act like a child with your manager? Or is today special?” Remus asked mildly, but the corners of his mouth were turned up in a slight mocking smile that Sirius would normally have despised, but on Remus it was just too cute. Sirius hated that he couldn’t even hold a real grudge against the other man. He was a Black. It was basically in his DNA to hold a grudge. 

“I’m pretty much always a child. Speaking of which.” Sirius pulled the gift from his back pocket. “I got you something.” He couldn’t even hold a grudge against Remus for ruining his carefully planned speech. Damn him. Remus opened it a bit hesitant, before breaking into laughter. That alone made Sirius’ trashed plans worth it. 

“I included instructions on how to use it too, since I’m fairly sure you have never had one before.” Sirius added helpfully, watching Remus pull the amp cord out of the envelope. In reality, Sirius knew perfectly well that Remus could play an electric guitar with just as much grace as he could the acoustic, as he had played it in several of his earlier music videos. But Sirius also knew that Remus preferred the acoustic, and what were rivals for but to challenge you?

“Thanks, I really appreciate your-” Remus thought for a moment. “Altruism.” Sirius thought that Remus might have chosen that word because he didn’t think Sirius knew it. Joke was on him though, because Peter loved to play scrabble, and James would always make him look up all of the words in the dictionary to prove they actually existed. 

“You’re very welcome. I can’t say my gift was wholly altruistic though.” Sirius smirked before setting off towards the stage again. He waved his hand lazily without turning around. “See you around Remus.” He couldn’t wait to tell Lily about this. 

 

Remus collapsed on the bed of his hotel room later that night and sighed loudly. 

“Wow. You really do have it bad, don’t you?” His head shot up to see Marlene sitting in the chair beside the bed.

“Marley! When did you get here?” Remus didn’t bother to ask her how she made it into his hotel room. She had yet to answer him the half a dozen other times she had shown up at random.

“This morning. You were only an hour away, and I wanted to see you play. You added your Beyoncé cover to your lineup. It was nice - you did good kid.”

“Marley, we’re the same age. I really wish you would stop calling me kid.”

“Maybe I will. When you stop acting like a lovesick  _ child.”  _ Remus rolled his eyes at his best friend. When they were in school, they had been inseparable. So much so, that most people had believed them to be dating, but even though Marlene was probably his favorite person in the world, they had never once considered dating. 

“So she’s like a sister then?” Their friend Mary had asked him once. Remus didn’t understand why everyone assumed that if a guy wasn’t interested in a girl, he must consider her a sister. He didn’t consider Marley his sister. He considered her his best friend. She was like his platonic soulmate.

“So, my ridiculous best friend, what’s your next plan of action?” She asked, crawling over to sit beside him on the bed.

“I don’t know.” Remus flopped back onto the bed. Marlene joined him, pulling a pillow down under her head. 

“Well, what did he do in retaliation for your song?” Remus silently pulled the envelope from his back pocket and handed it to her. She opened it, barely containing her glee. 

“He even gave you instructions!” 

“Yeah. How do I even come back from that?” 

“Something simple. Save your marvelous singing skills for something truly special.” Marlene advised before pulling him up. “Come on lovebird, I want waffles. We’re going to iHop and you’re buying me dinner.” Remus rolled his eyes but didn’t argue.

 

Remus was a sucker for long hair. It didn’t matter if it was on boys or girls. There was just something enthralling about how people with long hair always tucked it behind their ears or flipped it over their shoulders. Sirius Black was no exception to this rule, and Remus was constantly catching himself staring at his hair’s every little movement whenever he watched any of the Marauders videos. 

Which is why he was so annoyed that Sirius had his hair up in a bun for his most recent video. It wasn’t an official video by any means, just a riff-off between Peter and James in their tour bus, and Sirius had only been in it for a couple of seconds, setting the beat with a set of bongos. 

Remus often wondered what it would be like to have someone to tour with. He wondered if the tour bus riff-offs were common in bands, or just a Marauders thing. He wondered what it would be like to be that close to someone. He played the short instagram clip again and frowned again at Sirius’ manbun. Before he could even really think about it, Remus had typed out a response to the video. He hesitated before posting though. What if Sirius took it the wrong way? Remus shrugged. YOLO. He clicked the post button. 

“You guys sound great, but Sirius’ hipster bun is ruining your aesthetic.” Now he would wait.

 

“Sirius, why are we here?” Lily demanded as he dragged her down into the Potter’s basement. They were back in their old hometown for a couple of days, and Sirius couldn’t resist the temptation to return to their original recording studio from when they were in high school. Fleamont had James running errands with him all day, and Peter was visiting his own parents, which meant that he and Lily were the only ones capable of actually recording anything. That was okay though, it had been a while since he’d had any bonding time with his favorite sort- of sister in law. 

“For the nostalgia, Lils.”

“I probably should go help Euphe-”

“If you try to take Harry from Euphemia right now, she may very well start hissing. Let her spoil the kid rotten and come play with me.” Lily sighed, but she had a smile on her face, so Sirius knew he’d won.

Sirius passed the room that had at one time been his - given to him after he ran away for the final time in Junior year - and down the hall to the unfinished part, where the Marauders had spent so much of their time in school. Sometime in Sophomore year they had put up padding to help with the sound, and Sirius’ original drum set still sat in the corner of the room beside the sliding glass doors leading into the backyard. He ignored the drum set in favor of the upright piano sitting against the other wall. 

Before he had decided that his parents were crazy racists with a bit too much reliance on over the counter pills and stopped wanting anything to do with them, Sirius had taken classical piano lessons. He was good. Great actually, but he didn’t really play much anymore, finding more enjoyment from the rush of adrenaline that came with playing the drums. He only played the piano when they were writing songs, preferring to let Peter’s perfectly adequate playing take over any keyboard parts they might need. As if Peter needed any more instruments to play.

Sirius ran his fingers over the keys of the piano, hand automatically coming to rest on middle C. He set up his phone on one of James’ abandoned tripods from his photography phase and sat at the piano. 

“What are we singing?” Lily asked, settling herself on the bench beside him. Sirius grinned at her and started playing, running into a few false starts before his muscle memory kicked back in.

“Hello Darkness my old friend...” The nice thing about Lily was she was great at picking out harmonies. It was a skill she didn’t get to utilize very often, being the lead, and usually only, singer in the band. Sirius made it halfway through the song before they slipped up and started laughing. But he thought he would probably leave it like that rather than try and record a better one. That was what had always been so great about this first studio, it was where they could just be themselves, without any expectations of perfection or greatness. 

It was nice to come home sometimes.

 

“Returning to our roots. (You’ve wounded me @remuslupinofficial. You should be ashamed. #manbunforlife)” Remus reads the tweet aloud to Marlene over the phone. 

“That’s it?” 

“Oh no, it’s a video of him and Lily singing an acoustic piano cover of the Sound of Silence. Marley. He can  _ sing.  _ I don’t know how to handle this information.”

“Huh,” He could hear Marlene play the video in the background. “Damn son. And I thought Lily was talented. That boy has the voice of a literal angel. Why isn’t he the singer?”

“Because no one else can play drums.” Remus responded without hesitation. Marlene paused

“How on earth do you know that?”

“They talked about it in an interview once!” Remus defended his slightly bizarre knowledge. He could almost hear Marlene roll her eyes on the other end of the line. 

“Remus. You’re going to have to call this off before someone gets hurt. You know that right?” Remus was confused by her statement. Continuing the feud had been her idea in the first place if he remembered correctly.

“What do you mean?”

“Have you actually read any of the comments on any of you guys’ videos? They are starting to get really hateful. I know the two of you are just waving your musical dicks at each other or whatever, but that’s not what your fans are seeing. I just don’t want either of you to get hurt.” Remus thought about what she was saying. He would have to take her advice and call it quits eventually, but he wasn’t ready to do that just yet. Calling it quits on the feud would mean he would have to actually talk to Sirius and he didn’t know how to do that. Not yet.

“I’ll think about it Marley.”

“Rem-” 

“I know. I know. And I promise I’ll cut it off as soon as it’s a problem. But I just can’t yet, okay?” Marlene sighed. 

“Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you Remus.”

 

“@siriuslyblack Funny, I didn’t think you guys could play anything less than 80 decibels. On a side note, I finally got a chance to test out my new amp chord.” James read aloud to Sirius, after waking him up at an ungodly hour.

“Lovely Prongs. Why did you wake me up for this?” Sirius said sleepily. He was  _ not  _ a morning person. 

“It’s Harry’s first birthday Sirius, you would have had to be up anyway. But no, this is your moon boy’s response to you and Lil’s duet.”

“Moon boy?” Sirius wasn’t surprised by the nickname if he was being honest, James gave everyone a nickname eventually. 

“Moony. Because he’s got that moon tattoo, you know.” Sirius thought about it and shrugged. It wasn’t the worst. He had gotten his own nickname in sixth grade, because he walked really quietly and had a habit of sneaking up on James when he would raid the fridge at three in the morning. Only the first time had been unintentional. 

Peter had gotten his in Freshman year, when they had dissected rats in science class. He had saved the tail, shoving it in his pocket at the end of class, and stuck it in James’ bed the next day. James had thought it was a worm at first because of the texture.

So overall, Moony wasn’t the worst name. 

“Alright. Let’s see it then, since I’m already awake.” Sirius climbed out of his bunk and flopped on top of James on the couch so he could see the video over James’ shoulder.

“Oh My God. Is that Guns and Roses?” 

“I am so in love.” Sirius breathed as he watched Remus play his cover of Welcome to the Jungle. James snorted and shoved him off of him. 

“Go drool on someone else, Pads.” Sirius ignored him and just pulled up the video on his own phone so he could watch it another twenty times. Peter groaned from his own bunk.

“Please Sirius, for the love of God put headphones in this time.” Sirius ignored him and hit play.

 

Sirius arranged them all on the floor in a semicircle before handing Lily a shaker and settling himself behind his drums. He had opted to forego his drum set, choosing to play a handheld bass drum instead. They probably could have gotten by without the shakers, but it made a sound similar to rain, and Lily had wanted something to do anyway. James plucked at his guitar a bit before finally finding his key and joining Peter in his wooden-flute-thing rendition of Careless Whispers. For someone in a relatively successful band, Sirius really didn’t know very much about instruments. Luckily for him, he didn’t have to, as Peter seemed to be capable of playing an infinite number of them. 

“Ready?” Sirius asked them. They all nodded in response. If they could pull this off, it would be a miracle, as they only had an hour to practice and record before they would have to be back on the road again. Frank had agreed to man the camera for the band, and Alice was keeping an eye on Harry for them. Overall, not a bad setup for a last minute recording session. 

Sirius nodded at Frank to start the camera, and Peter started off the song with his flute thing. He and Lily joined in with the drums and shaker, before finally James started strumming on the acoustic they had dug out of the closet. Sirius loved this song, but it also kind of frightened him because unlike the Sound of Silence, which was very much a duet, The Islander would be all him, with Lily only singing backup. There was a reason he didn’t sing on stage. 

Unfortunately, by the very nature of the song, it wouldn’t sound right for Lily to sing the part, as it was meant to be sung by a deeper voice. Which made it great for singing in the shower, less so for singing in front of a camera. Sirius took a deep breath and started the song.

 

“@remuslupinofficial, What was that about not being loud?” 

If Remus hadn’t been in love with Sirius’ voice before, he sure as hell was now. It was so deep and beautiful. He also wondered just how many drums Sirius owned, as that was the third one he’d seen so far. He considered calling Marlene again, but realized she would still be teaching the Jazz band so he took her advice and started reading through the comments on the post instead. He winced as he read through comment after comment of his own fans bashing the Marauders for challenging him, and copying his style. As if Remus had a monopoly on doing acoustic covers. 

Not to mention, there was absolutely no way he would ever be able to pull off anything like what they had just done. For one, his voice wasn’t nearly as deep as Sirius’, and for two, there was only one of him. 

He wondered if he should reply to any of the comments, but he didn’t want to encourage them in bashing his rivals. This was just supposed to be a friendly competition, to challenge each other, not an actual fight. He bit his lip before typing, choosing twitter as his social media of choice, simply because he didn’t feel like taking a picture for instagram.

 

“@maraudersband Touche. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from you guys.” He hoped that would solve the problem, but he had a feeling this wasn’t ever yet. 

 

“He’s nice.” Lily commented, reading Remus’ tweet off of James’ phone. 

“Too nice. How has he made it this far, being that nice?” James commented back, taking his phone back from his wife.

“He’s not that nice.” Sirius argued, looking like he himself didn’t even believe the words coming out of his mouth. 

“He’s trying to end it.” Peter commented. “I wonder if he read some of the comments on our videos. He seems like the type to get a bleeding heart over that sort of thing.” 

“Are we going to let him end it?” James wondered aloud. All of them had really enjoyed throwing that last song together, but sometimes enough was enough. They all looked at Sirius.

“You started it. You should be the one to end it.” Lily commented. A slow and slightly sinister grin spread across Sirius’ face. 

“If we’re ending this, we should go out with a bang.”

 

For as long as Sirius could remember he had been in love with Judy Garland. He remembered being maybe six or seven and watching his VHS of Wizard of Oz, over and over again until his brother had literally hidden it from him. He owned no less than twelve of her movies, and had watched every documentary and interview with her that he could find. 

It was because of her that he aspired to be the sort of person who could defend the people who couldn’t defend themselves, and it was her words on being the best version of himself that had encouraged him to come out to his friends when he was sixteen. (This had backfired when his parents had overheard and beaten him regularly until he had finally run away; but it was the thought that counted.)

It was the knowledge that she had died of a drug overdose that had made him so adamant about not following the same path as his parents. He had refused to take anything more powerful than Ibuprofen when he’d had two of his wisdom teeth removed at age fourteen, and not even when James and Peter had gone through a weed phase in senior year of high school had Sirius ever budged from his no drugs policy. And when he found out that both of his estranged parents had both died of drug overdose, two years apart, all he could feel was relief that he had gotten out. That it wasn’t him. Judy Garland was his idol- and his greatest fear- all wrapped into one.

It seemed fitting that he try to woo the love of his life with one of her songs. 

“Sirius, this song is really hard to sing, and you have no formal training whatsoever! Are you absolutely sure?” Marlene said, looking over at him. He grinned at her cheekily. 

“Since when have I ever run away from a challenge?” She rolled her eyes and strode over to the piano to start them off. Sirius took his position at the mic. If he was being honest, he felt more comfortable singing this song than he had with The Islander. He had been singing this to himself for years, and had seen the movie more times than he could count. The Man That Got Away was everything he loved in a song, and the fact that one of their old friends from high school just happened to conduct a jazz band was just icing on the cake.

He was kind of surprised she wasn’t charging him for her help to be honest. 

“Ready?” Sirius asked, turning to his bandmate. Peter was the only other Marauder to take part in this week’s shenanigans, having borrowed a trombone from one of Marlene’s students so he could play the solos. He made a vague ‘carry on’ motion with his hand and Sirius nodded to Marlene who counted them out. 

“@remuslupinofficial I vote we play a game of Bigger or Better. (Much thanks to @mastermarley for the impromptu Jazz band.) #highschoolreunion”

 

Sirius was insane. Remus stared at the post in shock. He had given them the perfect out. He had conceded defeat, and yet, here he was. He wondered momentarily if this meant Sirius liked him back too but immediately brushed that thought away. And how the fuck did Sirius know Marlene? And why had Marlene not said anything. This. Entire. Time. 

He hit the play button and watched in absolute awe as Sirius belted out the song near effortlessly. Even Remus would have struggled with a song like that, but Sirius rocked it. He noticed Marlene wink at the camera somewhere around a minute in, and frowned. That motion was obviously meant for him, which meant he would be having a stern conversation with his best friend very soon. His prediction came true when she called him during his third rewatch of the video.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He demanded in lieu of a hello. 

“Hello Remus, nice to hear from you too. And because I didn’t feel like being a go between because you two are both idiots who can’t seem to have a normal conversation with each other.” Remus scoffed. 

“We wouldn’t ha-”

“Oh yes you would have. Just look how much you came to me for advice when you didn’t know I knew him. I am aromantic for a reason Remus, I do not have time for your romance bullshit.” Remus refused to admit that she may have a point. 

“Still! Whatever happened to the bro code?”

“The bro code bans you from sleeping with a bro’s ex, it doesn’t mean you have to play carrier pigeon when your bro is being a useless romantic. Nice try.” Remus huffed. Marlene was way too cool to argue with. He should have remembered that. 

“What should I do for the bigger or better challenge?” he changed the topic.

“Do what you do best, sing.” She hung up on him. Remus huffed and collapsed onto the bed, head swimming with ideas. 

 

Sirius clicked the link to the tag. It took him a moment to move past the usual admiration for Remus’ perfect curls and register what he was actually singing. His breath caught in his throat.

“Isn’t that your song?” Peter asked, looking up from his phone. Sirius nodded mutely. Remus had returned to his acoustic guitar, and was singing the song a lot slower than Sirius had written it, but it was his song alright. Remus had this slow and slightly breathy way of singing that made the song sound a lot more meaningful than Sirius’ own version. 

 

_ Song like a storm _

_ Your voice is raging in my head _

_ Song like a storm  _

_ Why can’t it just let me rest? _

 

He didn’t know what to think about it. On one hand, he loved Remus’ cover almost more than his original, but on the other… What did it mean? Did Remus understand the meaning behind it when he sang? Did he care about the meaning or just like the tune? Did he intentionally choose the one song that was entirely written by Sirius out of the dozens they had produced? Or was it coincidence?

 

_ Thunder fills my ears  _

_ Rain washes away my tears  _

_ As my heartbeat matches pace _

_ Song like a storm _

_ Singing all I’ll never say _

 

“Woah. He can really emote.” Lily commented, watching the video over his shoulder. Sirius just nodded again, still a bit in awe. So this was what it was like to have someone really see you? Sirius didn’t think he had ever really felt that before. He clicked the reply button as soon as the song was over, but before he could even start typing, Lily had snatched his phone from his hand. 

“No. I’m tired of your moping and your pining. We play a show with him on Saturday. You’re going to talk to him. In person. Like a normal fucking human being Sirius.” Sirius pouted at her. Unfortunately Lily was immune to the pouting now, and she just glared harder. “I mean it Sirius. Talk to him.” 

He flopped backwards onto the couch dramatically, making sure to jostle her as much as possible as he did so. James snorted at him from the driver’s seat. Sirius flipped him the bird in the rearview mirror, hoping he could see it. He succeeded because seconds later, James started cackling maniacally. Sirius could see Peter recording it, most likely to post on the band’s snapchat. He smiled fondly, suddenly overcome with love for this ridiculous family he had found. 

It started to drizzle as the Marauder’s set ended, leaving Sirius grateful. He hated having to play in the rain. He especially hated having to dry off his drum kit after playing in the rain. It sucked. Sirius saw Remus as he walked offstage, standing in the back with a small smile on his face, clapping for them like the polite nerd he was. 

“I’ll be back.” He told his bandmates, who were helping pack up the equipment for the next show. Lily smiled knowingly at him as Peter rolled his eyes and James cheered. Sirius ran out into the drizzle after Remus, who had just started walking away.

“Wait! Remus!” Remus stopped and turned to look at him 

The skies opened up over their heads, drenching them both in seconds. Sirius made a soft squeaking noise before grabbing Remus’ hand and dragging them into the nearest dry spot, which just happened to be a little abandoned tent that had probably held a snack table or something at some point during the day. 

Sirius was silent for a moment, eyes catching on the way that Remus’ curls stuck to his forehead from the water. 

“I wanted to talk to you.” Remus just nodded mutely, eyes tracing Sirius’ face. “Did you know that was my song?” Sirius winced slightly as the question came out as more of an accusation. Remus’ eyes widened and he shook his head.

“I got the feeling that you all wrote them together.”

“I mean, we do yeah, but there are a few songs that we contribute individually.  _ Song like a Storm  _ was mine.” 

“What-” Remus seemed to struggle with his words. “What were you thinking when you wrote it? I mean, I know what I was thinking of when I sang it, but I’m sure you probably had a different idea of what it was meant to be.” Sirius smiled grimly.

It had been the first day of the summer festival tour the year before. It was the Marauder’s second tour, but their first since Lily’s former best friend, Snape, had started ignoring her calls in favor of doing drugs and joining a shady group called the Death Eaters. Lily, being 7 months pregnant and moody as hell, was still heartbroken over it, and had tried to talk to Snape after their show that first day; leading only to a shouting match in the pouring rain. 

Severus Snape had broken Lily’s heart all over again that day, preying on all of her insecurities in front of her friends and family, until she was in tears. As much as Sirius had wanted to punch Snape in the face for hurting her again, he and Peter had been occupied with holding James back as there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he would happily commit murder in that moment.

Then, appearing out of the rain like a vengeful spirit, came Remus; hitting Snape with a well aimed blow to the face, before shaking out his now bruised hand and stalking back into the rain and disappearing. 

Sirius had watched Remus’ concert from the back of the crowds not three hours before, and had immediately downloaded every single one of his songs on Spotify. Punching Snivellus in the face was a new level of awe inspiring however, and what had started as a healthy admiration, grew into an unquenchable flame in the space of a few seconds. That was the day Sirius fell in love. 

“You.”

“What?”

“I was thinking about you. I wrote it for you.” 

“Oh.” Remus stared at him and Sirius desperately prayed that the look Remus was giving him was not a figment of his adrenalin addled head. He took a step forward. They were almost touching now, but not quite, a pool of water still forming at their feet. 

“I chose that song because it reminded me of you.” Remus admitted softly. Sirius could see a couple of thinner white scars that criss crossed his face now. He wondered how Remus got them.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Sirius gave in and pressed his lips against Remus’, who only responded by deepening the kiss. 

“Oi! Lovebirds!” James called from across the way. Sirius broke away and looked up to glare at his best friend. “You still have shit to do Padfoot. Get your ass over here. And bring Moony with you.” 

That night he officially brought the feud to a close with a selfie he had taken of the two of them and only the caption:

 

“@remuslupinofficial You win.” 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Couple of notes:  
> 1\. The conversation Remus has with Marley about liking drummers is an actual conversation the squad and I had back in like May. Like Remus, I stand by my statements.  
> 2\. I play clarinet. Not really rock band material, so sorry if I suck.  
> 3\. I did so much instagram band stalking for this you have no idea.  
> 4\. I don't actually have a twitter and I barely use instagram. How do you social media?  
> 5\. There's actually a pretty great Judy Garland Documentary on youtube right now if you can find it.  
> 6\. I have a playlist on spotify for anyone interested. It contains all of the songs sung in this fic, as well as a couple of rejects that I would have liked to include, and some that simply embody the spirit of their relationship.


End file.
